Before describing actual storms in all their complexity, this book aims to describe something much simpler: how the wind blows. Dynamic meteorology considers atmospheric motions as solutions of the fundamental equations of hydrodynamics: the equations of motion, the equation of continuity, the energy equation, the equation of state, and the equations of continuity for water substance. This book will develop these equations over the first several chapters. A rudimentary understanding of dynamic meteorology and atmospheric thermodynamics enables one to study storms: how they form, how they produce significant (and sometimes destructive) weather, and how they dissipate.

Even before considering the forces in the equation of state, a discussion of kinematics reveals mathematical conventions and vocabulary associated with dynamic meteorology.

Other systems of equations pertain to the statistical theory of turbulence and other special situations discussed in later chapters.